Roses
by tomboy14
Summary: A young Bella sees an oddly familiar woman selling roses on the street and doesn't know why her mom is frowning at the lady with the hair the color of an old penny. AH/AU


**AN: Written from a child's point of view, so repetition, slang spelling of words like "gonna," and run-on sentences are on purpose. I hope you understand outer picture from the young point of view.**

_POV: Bella at around age 6._

**--X--**

The green light turned yellow, and Mom slowed down so she wouldn't get another ticket for running a red light. I thought breaking the law was bad, but Mom does it all the time when she drives over the speed limit. She doesn't know that I notice stuff like that, but teachers always say I'm a good listener and I've always gotten good grades in math and know that 45 is bigger than 30. At least today the pointy-thingy above the steering wheel was only at 40.

Mom started flipping through the radio stations since they all seemed to have commercials right now and you're not supposed to take your eyes off the road or move both your hands from the wheel (even though she does this too sometimes which I'm also not supposed to know about). She always says that the radio stations seem to sync-a-something them all, or "People always trying to sell us something." Mom usually says that about the boring talking people between songs. I don't know why she doesn't let me bring my Hannah Montana CD in the car if she doesn't want to listen to the boring talking people. Or her own CDs. I think it might be because she broke the CD player and doesn't want to tell Dad, which is bad keeping something from him since Mom and Dad said that even if I did something bad I should tell them because they love me and Moms and Dads love each other so secrets aren't supposed to be between them. That's not good. Edward says that's why his parents got what the grown-ups call a divorce when he was a baby since his mom had secrets and Edward was always crying when he talks about his mommy and daddy that he never sees and I don't want to be split up from my mom and dad because divorce means your parents aren't gonna be together anymore and Edward's daddy had to go away! And so did his mom! That's why he lives with his aunt and uncle right now!

The song Mom finally picked was like _thum-thu-thu-thum, thu-thum-thum-thu, thum_! It made my head hurt and since I'm not allowed to touch the buttons to change the radio, I looked outside.

"Mom! There's a lady standing in the middle of the road, is she going to get a ticket? Oh, look at the pretty flowers! Is she selling them?"

"Oh, great." Mom rolled us the windows with a press of another button I'm not supposed to touch. The air from outside had felt good and the air conditioning was also broke (though Dad knew about that) so it was warm in the car.

"Why did you—"

"Bella, just look straight ahead and ignore the lady outside. No more words."

Mom was using her special voice that made me afraid sometimes but all the time made me listen to her. I didn't know what was wrong with the lady standing outside. She looked different from me, yet familiar, too, but in school they say that everyone is different and we should be nice to everyone because we're all special. All the boys and girls in my class were pale like me, with either brown or blonde hair, but I never knew there were so many differences in looks. The lady with the pretty flowers had really pretty long hair that was the color of an old penny. I've never seen hair that looks like an old penny! Edward's sorta looks like a penny, but his is lighter and shinier. The lady's wasn't as shiny. She had really white teeth too, I noticed because she was smiling at all the people in the cars around us as she made her way up to the car. I know I'm not supposed to be looking at the lady with the flowers, but Mom did say to look ahead and I was except I was also looking backwards by using the mirror. So I'm not really not listening to Mom.

I want to smile at the lady with the pretty smile, because even though she's smiling, she looks sad. She looks like she could use a hug. I wish I could buy some of the flowers because maybe they would make Mom happy and not all frowny like she is now. She keeps tapping her fingers on the wheel and looking at the light. Why is everyone looking like they need a hug?

Roses! The flowers are roses! Because "roses are red, violets are blue" and they look like the flowers that Dad had brought home for Mom when she was sick. Roses made Mom happy then, and I think she could use some roses now. But if the lady had roses, why wasn't she happy?

The special lady was at the car behind us now, but her bright white teeth went away as her smile dropped. I wondered why all these people were sad around me. I wanted to ask the lady, even though I'm not supposed to talk to strangers. I probably never will, because the light turned green and before Mom sped away I turned and looked at the lady and smiled at her. Mom was doing 50 this time and finally stopped frowning. I was kinda afraid to ask why, but I wanted to know.

"The flowers the lady with the penny hair was selling, they were roses?" I asked Mom.

"Yes, baby, they were." Mom started to frown again at the reminder of the lady.

"But I thought you liked roses, so why are you not happy?"

"It wasn't the roses, Bella. Now how would you like to go and visit Edward today? I have to talk to Auntie Esme and Uncle Carlisle."

"Yes, Mommy!" I loved visiting Edward in his big white house. Auntie Esme and Uncle Carlisle were the best adults! They liked to play with me and Edward when Mom was too tired. I wonder if the lady with the penny hair and the pretty flowers would like playing with me and Edward and Auntie Esme and Uncle Carlisle.

Mom pulled up to the big white house and we walked into the living room where Edward was practicing piano. I ran over to hug him and listen to him play, but before I did I heard Auntie Esme coming down. Mom said, "Elizabeth" to her, which was weird because Esme was Esme not Elizabeth, but then they both went upstairs, probably to talk to Uncle Carlisle in his big study with all the books! Maybe they were playing pretend and Auntie Esme was pretending to be Elizabeth.

"Hey Bella, wanna go play with my racecars?" Edward asked me, smiling his special smile that was kinda crooked but it wouldn't be right if Edward's smile was straight.

"Sure!" And we went over to his toy collection and I picked the red car while he picked the blue car and we started to race them! Edward always wins the first time, but I always win the second race! I hope Mom doesn't come down too soon from playing pretend with "Elizabeth" so we can race one more time! I like this red car, it's the color of those roses.


End file.
